A Crop of Apricots
Our neighbor Susan has a small ornamental apricot tree that grows in the corner of her front courtyard next to our lot. Its branches hang over the coyote fence into our yard.
It is the first to flower each spring, with gorgeous spring blooms in the third week of March when it still looks like dead brown winter around here. We've been here two springs now, and both years Susan and I go outside in the cold March air to marvel at her stunning tree in flower.
And look!
She brought over some of her crop this week. Gorgeous, perfect little apricot gems.
Because her tree flowers so early, it gets frost-zapped every spring. And this year it happened just after the flowers came out. In early April, after a very bitter winter, we had a hard freeze and all the blooms turned brown. Ugh. We commiserated together.
No flowers, no fruit. Still, it's a very pretty small tree and a lovely accent between our two front yards.
Then, in July... this:
How could this be? The tree was totally freeze-zapped and there was never any hope of fruit. And yet.
Are these perfect, or what? Apparently apricot trees all over town are bearing fruit like the apocalypse is coming. An article in the paper today said it is the biggest bumper crop in 40 years, and town crews can't keep the sidewalks clear of all the dropped fruit.
There are apricot trees planted everywhere in Santa Fe. Fruit trees -- apples, peaches, plums, cherries, apricots and crabapples too -- do well in this climate and some kind of fruit tree is in almost every yard.
This year fruit trees loved our wet cold winter and shrugged off hard spring frosts. Pink crabapples blooming in spring were a sight to see, and a friend's cherry tree produced masses of sweet cherries for snacking earlier in the summer. But it's the apricots that are having their day now, and what a crop!
It is the first to flower each spring, with gorgeous spring blooms in the third week of March when it still looks like dead brown winter around here. We've been here two springs now, and both years Susan and I go outside in the cold March air to marvel at her stunning tree in flower.
And look!
She brought over some of her crop this week. Gorgeous, perfect little apricot gems.
Because her tree flowers so early, it gets frost-zapped every spring. And this year it happened just after the flowers came out. In early April, after a very bitter winter, we had a hard freeze and all the blooms turned brown. Ugh. We commiserated together.
No flowers, no fruit. Still, it's a very pretty small tree and a lovely accent between our two front yards.
Then, in July... this:
How could this be? The tree was totally freeze-zapped and there was never any hope of fruit. And yet.
Are these perfect, or what? Apparently apricot trees all over town are bearing fruit like the apocalypse is coming. An article in the paper today said it is the biggest bumper crop in 40 years, and town crews can't keep the sidewalks clear of all the dropped fruit.
There are apricot trees planted everywhere in Santa Fe. Fruit trees -- apples, peaches, plums, cherries, apricots and crabapples too -- do well in this climate and some kind of fruit tree is in almost every yard.
This year fruit trees loved our wet cold winter and shrugged off hard spring frosts. Pink crabapples blooming in spring were a sight to see, and a friend's cherry tree produced masses of sweet cherries for snacking earlier in the summer. But it's the apricots that are having their day now, and what a crop!
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